Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-27
AN ENCHANTED EDITOR.
he Pays a Beautiful Tribute to Californl
and Oregon.

and Oregon.
The Salt Lake Tribune of December 18th
says:
Tomorrow the men of California and
Oregon will celebrate the completion of a
work of more magnitude than many people
dream of. The road between San Fran
cisco and Portland is at last completed,
and the Southern Pacific Company now
own line continuous from the Columbia
river to San Diego. Two hundred miles of
the northern end, from Portland to Rose
burg, and the southern end, between Oak
land and Redding, of the California and
oregon road were finished many years ago,
but there was portage of two hundred
and seventy-fve miles which was a most
severe work. 1t not only taxed the ability
of the engineers to the utmost, but ii was
a gigantic work, quite as desperate and ex-
pensive as was the building of the road
over the Sierras via the Bonner Lake
route. There were three or four turbulent
rivers to cross and the Siskiyou range
to subdue, and that is a range that it was
difficult at first to find trail for mule
across. There are several heavy tunnels :;
one almost equal in length to the one
at the summit beyond Truckee; there
were tremendous cuts and fills to be
made, and we understand there is more
trestle-work on the road than on the whole
Central Pacific. Much of the grading has
| cost $4,000 per mile-probably quite eighty
miles of the road has averaged that amount.
But 1t was worth the cost. Beyond the
Sacramento valley and the mountains
Rogue river is reached, and it is as beauti-
ful and productive valley as can be found
anywhere; beyond it the valley of the
Umpqua is reached, and beyond that the
Willamette. The mountains have wealth
of timber of almost inestimable value, and
the road will make near view of Mount
Shasta possible to the traveller. There is
no grander mountain in America. The
| road either crosses or TANKS the Sacra.
mento, the McCloud (the prettiest river in
America), the Pit, Mount Shasta, the
klamath, the Rogue, the Umpqua and
Willamette and many others; it takes away
the terrors of the Columbia bar 10 travellers
| between the two great States; it will be a
mighty avenue of transportation for both
freight and passengers. Three years ago
the Central Pacific people, who owned the
California and Oregon road, secured
control of the Oregon and California,
| and now the link in the chain is closed.
| The men of the two States will celebrate
tomorrow, and they have right TO, for it
cannot but be great factor in the progress
| Of both. The two States together can feed and
| give employment to many millions of peo-
| pie; to as many as France can. Together,
out in midocean, they would, in very few
years, become of as much interest in the
commercial world as the United Kingdom
now is. They have a greater area than all
the land of the Republic that is drained di-
rectly into the Atlantic. That is, more
than the States on the Atlantic seaboard
from Maine to Georgia, and they possess
infinitely greater natural elements of wealth.
| The men who, in forty years, have attacked
and subdued that land, secured civiliza-
| ton as high and generous as exists any
| where, have right to rejoice that at last
they are Joined together with a band of
steel and that they are at last made indie
pendent of ship and stagecoach in their
inter communication. Ashland, where they
will celebrate, is beautiful little town
that has grown up by itself on its native
resources. 1t waited, and the locomotives
came to it to kiss and make up-the link
| between the great States.